The work was composed in the early 1750s and revised circa 1760 and again just before David Hume's death in 1776; the first two and last two folios of the manuscript date from this last revision, while the remainder is the original text with later interlinear and marginal corrections. Hume paginated the manuscript in its final form, from 1 to 88, but 15-16 and 39-40 are not present, though there is no loss of text. Hume was persuaded not to publish it during his lifetime, but was concerned that it should appear after his death. A copy was made from this manuscript, incorporating the revisions, and the work was printed from this in 1779 (except that the original pages 69-76 were used, as attested by a note of Baron Hume, and witnessed by the printer's notes on them). All the changes are noted in the edition by Norman Kemp Smith (London, 1935 and 1947), where also the evidence for a date of composition and revision is assembled in Appendix C, pages 87-96.